Beach Road rat race continues

The onset of rainy season has the rats running again on Beach Road, made fat on garbage left behind by tourists.

Vermin clambered around the sand from Soi 7 to Walking Street June 7, snapping up scraps tossed by tourists and left behind by local pubs and restaurants.

The Public Health and Environment Department previously said it has been exterminating rats for more than seven years. But fueled by a birthrate that can see every female rat producing up to 85 offspring a year, the problem has started to worsen.

When the lights go out, the rats come out on Pattaya Beach.

Rats can be seen frequently nesting in or under coconut trees and in flower beds.

There are so many, workers are not able to eradicate them totally. However, traps and extermination efforts three times per month try to cull their numbers.

This article was published in the Pattaya Mail newspaper on Friday June 20, 2014 (Vol. XXII No. 25).